This invention pertains to poultry houses and, more particularly, to automated animal houses.
Workers and livestock, such as poultry and pigs, must endure biohazardous conditions on a daily basis. In poultry (fowl) houses and hog confinements (swine houses), for example, chickens, turkeys, ducks, ostriches, sheep, goats and pigs secrete waste matter, which produces noxious gases comprising volatile fumes of ammonia and methane. Poultry also produce great amounts of dust with their feathers. Swine (pigs and hogs) which like to wallow in mud, also produce great amounts of dust when swine shake off mud. The biohazardous conditions in animal houses create an unsafe atmosphere and an unpleasant environment for poultry (birds), swine, livestock, farmers and workers.
Some poultry houses and hog confinements have an air intake and exhaust system to extract gases and dust for emission into the outside atmosphere. The exhaust fans typically have timed controls or sensors that trigger the fans on and off depending on the level of ammonia and dust in the poultry houses or hog confinements. Even with conventional exhaust fans running at 100% capacity, the farmers and workers often wear protective masks in poultry houses and hog confinements to attempt to shield the gases and dust from their lungs.
The emission and concentration of noxious gases and dust in conventional poultry houses adversely affect the health, growth rate, and well being of livestock, such as chickens, turkeys, and other poultry. Excessive amounts of noxious gases and dust can cause livestock, such as poultry to develop eye diseases. It can also cause the poultry to become sick and lose their appetite. As a result, many of the chickens, turkeys and other poultry stop eating and drinking, their growth rate becomes stunted, and their meat may no longer be tender, firm and tasty. Unsafe levels of these harmful gases and dust can also kill many of the chickens, turkey and other poultry. In conventional poultry houses, the floor is normally covered with a bedding of litter material, such as wood shavings, or rice hulls, etc. which remain in place for long periods of time, e.g. such as a year, before the bedding is changed. During that time, the bedding accumulates fecal matter (waste), urine, bacteria from dead animals, water, spilled feed, etc., which can cause the bedding to become contaminated. Used bedding can be become encrusted with fecal matter and can serve as an incubation area for mold and bacteria. The conditions of the bedding directly affect the quality of the air and living conditions in the poultry house. The preceding conditions can have an adverse affect on the health and longevity of the poultry and swine and the quality of the their meat and eggs.
Another factor affecting air quality in a poultry house is the amount of ammonia and methane produced by the livestock in their fecal matter and the used bedding. High levels of ammonia can also adversely affect the health, growth rate and longevity of the birds up to the point of being fatal.
The production of broilers in the poultry industry includes a grow out stage in which many thousands of young chicks are delivered and sheltered in a poultry house, where they are provided with food and water through a growth cycle of about 6 to 8 weeks. The chicks are not individually caged, but live in a poultry house by the thousands.
A typical poultry house is a rectangular steel truss or wood frame structure. One or more dividers or partitions can be provided along the length of the poultry house to divide the building into sections to restrict the access of the birds. The rectangular building providing the poultry house can be provided with large openings along its length for natural ventilation. For the first three weeks of the chicks"" life, the chicks are not usually able to control their own body temperature and are, therefore, very susceptible to changes in temperature within the poultry house.
In order to keep the poultry houses warm, poultry houses are usually equipped with heaters, such as butane heaters. During the first three weeks of growth for a new batch of chickens, the poultry houses are typically kept at a temperature of 90xc2x0 F. for the first week, 85xc2x0 F. for the second week, and 80xc2x0 F. for the third week. For the remainder of the five to seven-week growing cycle, the poultry houses are kept at a comfortable level. With the exhaust fans running at 100% capacity in an attempt to remove some of the noxious gases and dust, the heaters often have to operate continuously in conventional poultry houses to heat the houses to the proper temperature. Continuous operation of the fans and heaters in conventional poultry houses consumes an enormous amount of energy and is very expensive. These expenses are usually and/or ultimately passed on to the consumer.
Many farmers seek improved ways to operate their poultry houses. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and State environmental agencies are implementing higher standards for the quality of air exiting the poultry houses, hog confinements and other biohazardous areas.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an automated animal house, which overcomes most, if not all, of the preceding problems.
A novel automated animal house is provided which improves the health and growth rate of poultry and swine, and enhances the quality of their meat. Advantageously, the improved automated animal house is efficient, effective and economical. Desirably, the user-friendly automated animal house is environmentally attractive and achieves cleaner air for workers and livestock, less pollution, and a decrease of energy and power to exhaust the air, as well as a reduction in butane usage and other sources of energy to heat the animal house.
The automated animal house can comprise an automated poultry or an automated hog confinement and includes a facility to house livestock, such as poultry or swine. Preferably, the facility has an upright annular wall, such as an external vertical circular wall, which extends downwardly from a roof. Desirably, the facility has an upper compartment below the roof, a stationary fixed non-rotating (non-rotatable) animal compartment below the upper compartment, and a lower compartment below the stationary animal compartment. In order to enhance the quality of life and health of the animals, a bed of replaceable bedding material is placed in the animal compartment to support and comfort the animals. An annular feeder can be positioned above the bed to dispense animal feed to the livestock. An annular water line can also be positioned above the bed to dispense water to the livestock.
Ionizers can be provided in the upper compartment to emit ions to help purify the air in the animal house. The animal house can have at least one heater source in the lower compartment to provide heat for the livestock in cold weather. Desirably, the animal house includes at least one fan in the upper compartment to draw heat from the heat source towards the livestock and to blow cooler air on the livestock in warm weather. At least one ozone generator can be provided in the lower compartment to help sanitize the animal house. The automated animal house can include an internal lighting system with DC powered multi-colored high intensity light-emitting diodes (LED""s) which require less power consumption and has longer life than the conventional incandescent lighting.
Advantageously, the automated animal house has at least one conveyor with a feed conveyor portion in the lower compartment to feed fresh bedding material to the bed. Desirably, the automated animal house also has at least one conveyor with a discharge conveyor portion in the lower compartment to convey used bedding material away from the bed for discharge to a receptacle or collection bin, preferably outside of the animal house.
In the preferred form, the automated animal house has at least one rotatable (rotating) arm to move the bedding material. The rotatable arm can have tines to loosen fecal encrusted bedding material. In the illustrative embodiment, the rotatable arm comprises a tubular conduit with at least one internal conveyor which communicates with the bed to convey the fresh bedding material and/or used bedding material. The rotatable arm may also have tines located on the top rear side to collect the dead animal carcass as it refurbishes the bedding material.
The automated animal house preferably comprises a set, series, or array of animal houses with substantially upright annular walls, such as vertical circular external walls, to increase the amount of living and growing space for the animals. At least one refurbishing unit can be positioned between and communicate with the animals houses to convey fresh bedding material to the animals houses. At least one recycling unit can also be positioned between and communicate with the animal houses to convey used bedding material from the animal houses. Moreover, at least one feed unit can also be provided to communicate with the animal houses in order to supply animal feed to the livestock in the animal houses. The feed unit can be positioned between or outwardly of the animal houses.
A more detailed explanation of the invention is provided in the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.